Why are arts experiences important in the early years of life? How do music, dance, drama, and visual art contribute to growth and learning? How can parents and educators foster young children’s creativity?

The Art to Heart series explores these questions, making a persuasive case that music, dance, drama, literature, and the visual arts are essential components of early childhood education, not frills. Through eight half-hour programs hosted by actress Ana Ortiz, the series provides parents and preschool and elementary educators with information they can use to better understand the children in their lives, with ideas for arts activities, and with inspiration to make play and creativity a part of every day’s activities.

To create Art to Heart, a KET crew traveled around the United States, taping arts activities in schools, child care and Head Start centers, community art centers, museums, and homes and interviewing leading researchers in the field of learning and the arts, along with teachers, parents, and artists who put theory into practice. But the central focus is on children themselves-from babies playing in paint to young ballerinas, painters, and violinists-exploring the world and expressing their feelings and ideas with enthusiasm, exuberance, and joy.

In Destinos, students learn Spanish in the diversified cultural context in which it is spoken throughout the world. Destinos uses the natural conversations and intriguing situations of a continuing story as the vehicle for language learning. The course is designed to help develop proficiency in all the communication skills—listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Our next KET Multimedia Professional Development Day will be held on Wednesday, July 18, 2018. Visit this page again in the spring of 2018 to see the session and presenter lineup and to register for the next event.

Kentucky Educators attending the KET Multimedia PD Day 2017 wave as they’re being photographed by KET Producer/Director Justin Allen’s flight demonstration during his session on Using Drones in Education.

PD Credit

To find out whether KET Multimedia Professional Development Day session hours can be used toward fulfillment of your school district’s staff professional development requirements, please contact your school or district official in charge of professional development. Up to six hours of credit will be available, corresponding to how many sessions of the event are attended.

Those attending the 2017 event will be emailed certificates in early August listing hours accumulated for participation in the KET workshops and presentations.

KET is also approved to award EILA (Effective Instructional Leadership Act) professional development credit to Kentucky K-12 school administrators for attendance at our summer event workshops.

Explore using iPads, iPhones, and apps to make classroom multimedia projects in less time and for less cost; introduce students to Minecraft educational gaming; try KET’s online classroom resources. Enjoy one of our free Media Lab workshops, then stay for a career-readiness tour of KET’s multimedia production facility!

What and Where: KET offers free workshops in multimedia production and related topics for Kentucky students and educators in the KET Media Lab at the KET Network Center in Lexington. We hope you’ll join us in the Media Lab to explore ways to make project-based learning exciting, meaningful, and memorable with multimedia tools and resources!

Presenters: Workshop instructors include KET education consultants as well as other KET education and production division staff, and occasional guest presenters.

How and When: Choose from the current Media Lab workshops in the featured resources of this collection for students and teachers and e-mail or call Cynthia Warner at cwarner@ket.org, 800-432-0951 ext. 7263, to arrange a visit that suits your needs and schedule. Kentucky schools, homeschools, community service organizations, and government social agencies are welcome to schedule year-round student, teacher, and staff workshops during weekday hours from 8:30 am 5:00 pm EST, M-F. Workshop start times and durations are negotiable to suit travel needs. Seating is limited to 30 participants per workshop with a few extra seats available for teachers, guides, and observers. Schools and groups may also bring or order lunches to eat at KET. All required equipment and software for workshops is provided.

This collection provides K-12 teachers with high-quality teaching resources that bring the world of music into the classroom. You’ll find lesson plans, idea cards, glossaries, and many special features. The lesson plans are based on video segments taken from KET programs; visit the Video section for information on how to record these programs when they are broadcast and how to request a rebroadcast.

The Boxed Toolkit
These online resources augment those included in the boxed toolkit. This Toolkit includes more than 12 hours of instructional and performance video in 150 classroom-friendly segments, a CD-ROM entitled A World of Music that introduces styles and instruments from around the globe, and a wealth of lesson plans and other teaching ideas.

Contact Us
If you have a question about the Music Toolkit or would like to make a comment, e-mail artstoolkit@ket.org.

This Drama Toolkit provides K-12 teachers with high-quality teaching resources that bring the excitement of the theater into the classroom. You’ll find lesson plans, idea cards, glossaries, and many special features. Some of these, such as Kentuckians in Theater, Tour of the Stage, and Will Power, are designed for students as well as teachers.

The Boxed Toolkit
These online resources augment those included in the boxed Drama Arts Toolkit. Now in its second edition, this toolkit includes two DVDs offering nearly 80 video segments of performance excerpts, artist interviews, and historical and cultural information, including a set of segments on Japanese Kabuki theater. The 2nd Edition Drama Arts Toolkit binder includes nearly 600 pages of lesson plans, glossaries, informational resources, and teaching tips. The Drama Toolkit also includes idea cards, a poster, and the CD-ROM From Page to Stage, which explores the collaborative process of theater though video, audio interviews, and images.

“What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out?” – Alfred Hitchcock

Best of the Best!
In 2005, the Drama Arts Toolkit was named Best Instructional Resource and “Best of the Best” by the National Educational Telecommunications Association—the first non-broadcast product to be named “Best of the Best”!

Contact Us!
If you have a question about the Drama Arts Toolkit or would like to make a comment, e-mail artstoolkit@ket.org.

The KET School Video Project website is a place to share Kentucky school, government, and non-government organization public service videos in a safe online environment. Student-produced school news programs, public service announcements, art and music videos, classroom projects, example teacher videos, and videos for our special KET School Video Project Challenges can all be shared online at KET from your own personalized channel. Login or register a new account to begin uploading. See our Terms of Use for uploading and technical information.

Communicate with other users within the site to exchange multimedia production information and ideas.

KET School Video Project Challenges – Upload and Win Free Gear!

2017-2018 KET School Video Project Challenge: How do you see the future?

People have always imagined what reality might be in the future. Some predictions, such as digital photography, 3-D printing, Facetime, and cell phones, autonomous cars now exist; other fanciful ideas were off the mark—so far no underwater kelp farming to solve world hunger, flying cars, square tomatoes, or losing our ability to read because of television. Most of the predictions we know of came from adults, but we want to hear from you, our youth, who will help shape the future. Looking at the world as it is now and using your imagination and creativity, what do you see in the distant future, fifty or more years from 2017? What kind of world will your kids, grandkids and great grandkids (and lots more greats, if you like!) live in?

KET regularly offers special video challenge projects throughout the year. Curriculum-focused, they end in a prize drawing for free video production equipment.

Past project challenges include…

KET’s last KET School Video Project Challenge was My Kentucky Home, student-produced documentary-style videos about hometowns and what’s special about them. Kentucky public, private, and homeschools were eligible to participate. Winner of the project’s prize drawing on May 1, 2017, was Ms. Crystal Neal, Library Media Specialist at Powell County Middle School. Ms. Neal shared the excellent student-made documentary, Buzzing About Bees, about local bee farming and the importance of bees to plant pollination.

The Dance Toolkit Collection provides K-12 teachers with high-quality teaching resources that bring the excitement and emotion of dance into the classroom. You’ll find lesson plans, idea cards, glossaries, and many special features. Some of these, such as Kentuckians in Dance, are designed for students as well as teachers.

The Boxed Toolkit

These resources augment those included in the boxed Dance Arts Toolkit. Now in its second edition, this toolkit includes five DVDs with more than 160 video segments of performances, commentary, and demonstrations. Included are dances from cultures around the world, as well as examples of a wide variety of dance styles. The Dance Arts Toolkit binder includes more than 600 pages of informational resources, from lesson plans and glossaries to folk dance instructions and a guide to periods and styles. The 2nd edition Dance Arts Toolkit also includes a poster and the World of Dance and Music CD-ROM, which takes students on a tour of the dance and music of 39 countries around the world as well as regions of the United States.

An Award-Winning Poster!
The Dance Arts Toolkit poster/timeline, “Dancing Through Time,” won a 2006 ADDY Award from the Lexington Advertising Club.

Contact Us!
If you have a question about the Dance Arts Toolkit or would like to make a comment, e-mail artstoolkit@ket.org.

This collection provides K-12 teachers with high-quality teaching resources that bring the excitement of the visual arts into the classroom. You’ll find lesson plans, idea cards, glossaries, and many special features. Some of these, such as Kentuckians in the Visual Arts and the galleries associated with the programs Looking at Painting and Ellis Wilson—So Much To Paint, are directed at students as well as teachers.

Award-Winning Resources!
The Visual Arts Toolkit was named the Best Instructional Product at the National Educational Telecommunications Association 2006 Awards presentation. In addition, the Kentucky Virtual Art Museum CD-ROM and the “Purposes of Art” poster received ADDY awards from the Lexington Advertising Club.

The Boxed Toolkit
These online resources augment those included in the boxed Visual Arts Toolkit. This toolkit includes two DVDs offering 72 video segments of demonstrations and artist interviews. The artists featured represent a wide variety of cultures and work in a range of media. The Visual Arts Toolkit binder includes more than 600 pages of lesson plans, glossaries, informational resources, project instructions, and teaching tips. In the e-edition, these materials are provided as PDFs on a flash drive. The Visual Arts Toolkit also includes idea cards, a poster, and the Kentucky Virtual Art Museum, a CD-ROM featuring images of more than 200 works of art from 20 Kentucky museums. The Visual Arts Toolkit is also available as an e-edition.

E-Edition of the Visual Arts Toolkit
The KET Visual Arts Toolkit is now available as an E-edition. In this edition, the lesson plans and informational materials included in the binder in the printed edition, are provided as PDFs on a flash drive. This lowers the cost of the Visual Arts Toolkit to $75. A version with a binder and printed materials is still available for $99.

To order, call (800) 945-9167.

Contact Us!
If you have a question about the Visual Arts Toolkit or would like to make a comment, e-mail us at artstoolkit@ket.org.

KET Education

Special Resources

News Quiz is KET’s weekly 15-minute current events program for grades 4-8. The program consists of news segments; a current events quiz; letters to News Quiz; and Earth Trek, Our Great State, and FYI segments.